Mayor Lee Signs San Francisco Transit Center District Plan

Mayor Edwin M. Lee today signed the San Francisco Transit Center District Plan after the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved it on July 31, 2012, confirming the City’s commitment to developing a new commercial corridor envisioned in the downtown Plan and helping to finance the multi-modal Transbay Transit Center already underway.

“This district will be transformed from an area once dominated by automobiles to lively streets, abundant parks and more open spaces,” said Mayor Lee. “With even more transit service planned for the future and the new transit center now under construction, this is the best place to accommodate growth in the City. We can build and improve our City while creating jobs for our residents and supporting our continued economic recovery.”

The Plan addresses continued public quality of life and growth in the new district, the $4.2 billion Transit Center/Downtown Rail Extension project, as well as to the City’s need to provide space for continued job growth in a transit-oriented manner.

Between now and 2035, approximately 17 percent of the projected job growth in San Francisco will occur in the area surrounding the new Transbay Transit Center. The project anticipates more than 27,000 new permanent jobs in the District – the most significant concentration of projected job growth in the City.

“This is the fulfillment of a key recommendation from the innovative 1985 Downtown Plan, a plan that revitalized the heart of San Francisco,” said Planning Director John Rahaim. “We are very proud to continue this tradition with the Transit Center District Plan as it comprehensively addresses the full range of issues needed to make this a complete, high- density neighborhood.”

The new district will feature more than six million square feet of new office space, 4,000 new housing units of which at least 1,200 units will be affordable, up to 1,000 new hotel rooms, and improved streets to enhance transit service and support walking and bicycling. The new Plan also proposes to create and fund more than 11 acres of new parks, plazas and living streets. The project provides an additional $18 million for open space improvements outside of the Plan Area.

One of the key objectives of the Transit Center District Plan is to raise revenue from new development for the Transit Center/Downtown Rail Extension project and other public infrastructure to support continued growth in the Plan area, including circulation, streetscape, open space, and other transit improvements. The Plan’s Funding Program is projected to raise $590 million of new revenue from development, including more than $400 million for completing the Transit Center/Downtown Rail Extension project.

The plan was developed in partnership with the Planning Department, the Transbay Joint Powers Authority (TJPA) and the Successor Agency to the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, and involved close coordination with many public agencies, such as San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency (SFMTA).

“The TJPA would like to thank and congratulate Mayor Lee and the Planning Department for the successful approval of the Transit Center District Plan,” said TJPA Executive Director Maria Ayerdi-Kaplan. “With the achievement of this milestone, the TJPA can move forward with the sale of land parcels that will provide significant funding for the new Transbay Transit Center, transforming the Transbay neighborhood into the leading model for transit oriented development in the country.”

“I am excited to take this next step in the growth of District 6, connecting downtown to our residential neighborhoods,” said District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim who represents the South Beach, Mission Bay and Rincon Hill neighborhoods that will be most impacted by the development, and chairs the TJPA. “In conjunction with the Redevelopment Plan, the Transit Center District Plan seeks to create density and jobs in a neighborhood that can and should grow.”